BISBEE - The U.S. Border Patrol removed Naco-based agent Nicholas Corbett from field work on Tuesday, a day after the Cochise County attorney charged him with the first-degree murder of an illegal border-crosser from Mexico.

"He is going to be placed in an administrative position basically doing administrative tasks until the resolution of this (criminal case)," said Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer on Monday filed a criminal complaint charging Corbett, 39, with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in connection with the Jan. 12 shooting death of Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, 22, of the Mexican state of Puebla.

Soto said Tuesday that Tucson Sector Chief Robert Gilbert would not issue a statement on the charges, despite saying Monday that a statement was forthcoming.

"We've confirmed that there will be no comments on the criminal complaint," Soto said.

Corbett shot Dominguez-Rivera while taking him into custody shortly after Dominguez-Rivera and three family members made an illegal border crossing into the United States approximately eight miles east of Naco.

Corbett declined to be interviewed by investigators from the Cochise County Sheriff's Office but told supervisors at the Naco Border Patrol station that Dominguez-Rivera had threatened him from across his truck with a rock.

Rheinheimer said physical evidence failed to support Corbett's account that he shot Dominguez-Rivera in self-defense. Instead, he said, the evidence supported an account told by the three family members who said that Corbett rushed up behind Dominguez-Rivera and pushed him to his knees with his right hand while shooting him with his left.

Daniel J. Santander, Corbett's Tucson-based attorney, disagreed.

"Based on the reports I have received, the charges are completely unfounded," Santander said. "As this case proceeds to trial, I am extremely confident that the evidence will clearly show that my client is innocent."

In a posting to its Web site, the Local 2544 of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector, said the charges against Corbett were part of a "pattern of prosecuting Border Patrol agents for doing their jobs."

"We will not abandon this agent in his greatest time of need," the union said. "When his side of the story comes out, we hope that people will see that he did nothing wrong. Please keep in mind that he hasn't had the opportunity to tell his story yet."

Others, such as Cecile Lumer of the Bisbee-based organization Citizens for Border Solutions, were pleased with the charges.

"We are glad to see the wheels of justice moving forward, although slowly," she said, adding Citizens for Border Solutions had been circulating a petition asking that Corbett be charged with murder.

"I am glad that it will not be necessary to present this (petition) to Rheinheimer," Lumer said.

Jennifer Allen, director of the Tucson-based immigrant rights group Border Action Network, has been one of Rheinheimer's staunchest critics, naming him the BAN's 2005 "Grinch of the Year" for failing to bring criminal charges against anti-illegal-immigration rancher Roger Barnett.

On Tuesday she said that her group applauded Rheinheimer for charging Corbett.

"I think it sends a message out to community members that the law will be equally applied to everybody," Allen said. "I think this is good for the Border Patrol as well, because they don't want to have agents who operate outside the rule of law."

But she also criticized the Border Patrol for returning Corbett to active field duty after a three-day leave following the shooting.

"Anyone who is facing possible criminal charges to this extent should not be out in the desert interacting with undocumented people," Allen said.

Corbett has been summonsed to make his initial court appearance on Friday in front of Alma Vildosola, justice of the peace in Douglas. He will then be scheduled for a preliminary hearing, at which Vildosola will decide if there is enough evidence for the charges to move forward.

However, a different judge could be assigned to the preliminary hearing if Corbett requests.

The FBI also is investigating the shooting to determine if Corbett violated Dominguez-Rivera's civil rights. Deb McCarley, spokeswoman for the agency in Phoenix, said the FBI is continuing to follow the case and provide updates to Justice Department officials in Washington.

Evidence cited in the case

On March 26, in response to a public records request from the Herald/Review and the Arizona Daily Star, Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheimheimer released the evidence collected by Sheriff's Office investigators in the Corbett case.

The nearly 300 pages of documents and two compact discs include:

- An autopsy report by Dr. Guery Flores, county medical examiner, which concludes that the bullet that killed Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera took a downward diagonal trajectory through his left chest and lung, heart, stomach and liver before lodging in his right abdomen.

- A state Department of Public Safety crime lab report showing that Dominguez-Rivera was shot from a distance of 3 inches to 2 1/2 feet.

- A grainy surveillance video from a Border Patrol camera tower two miles away that shows Corbett circle the Dominguez-Rivera party in his SUV before exiting and dashing around the back of the truck. When Corbett reaches the group, a body appears to lurch forward. The video is too poorly defined to show the actual shooting.